Welcome to a new feature:
Cover Kid’s Corner
Kid’s love concerts too and we thought it would be a fun feature to get a child’s perspective of family friendly events.
By: Kennedy Wright age 7
Darius Rucker played at the Midland Theater in Newark Ohio Thursday, May 5th. The concert was sold out.
The Drew Davis band played 1st. Everybody clapped when he ran on stage with
an American flag, but we all really just wanted to see Darius Rucker, so everybody
started saying his name over and over.
Darius came out and sang Love Will Do That, and every body stood up and clapped
the whole time. For the next two songs, Alright and All I Want, I had to stand
on a ledge to see. Everybody stood up and Darius told the ushers that they can’t
make the fans sit down. He likes it when the fans stand up.
At the end Darius sang Family Tradition, that's one of my favorite songs and
everybody was singing along and really liked it. He did a good job. I would
go back and see him if I could, but I hope he has some other band singing first.
Darius was done singing, but the fans were yelling his name and stomping their
feet. He came back out and sang Purple Rain, it was okay; all the old people
really liked it.
concert review by Christy Wright
Amidst much hootin' and hollerin', a countrified Darius Rucker took the stage
to bring his southern stylings to the Midland Theater in Newark, Ohio. This
sold out show was the gem of a packed schedule for Newark’s Midland Theater,
a historic hall drawing bigger names with each season.
After the twangy "Love will do that" and "Alright" opened
the show, the trip to “Hootieville”began with a very offhand arrangement
of "Hold my hand" from the heyday of Rucker’s former band Hootie
and the Blowfish. The inclusion of any of the Blowfish songs was uncertain considering
fifteen years have passed since Hootie and the Blowfish were top pop stars and
Rucker now has a successful country career. On one hand, it was kind of like
visually reviewing music history, but he definitely could have featured more
music from his country album Charleston, SC 1966.
Personal highlights for the reviewer were the new hits "This" and
"Come Back Song" as well as the beautiful bittersweet "It Won't
Be Like This For Long" which struck a personal chord. Darius also chipped
in two covers for his much anticipated encore; "Family Tradition"
by Hank Williams Jr., and in a totally left-field move, Prince's "Purple
Rain". Both songs had the crowd going crazy. The audience gave him a tremendous
ovation as he walked off and left his band members to play out the powerful
ending to "Purple Rain". The song choices were as eclectic as the
members of the audience but the performance was well received by the Central
Ohioans who ponied up a pretty penny to see a big name star in an intimate setting.
Photos by David Heasley